Head coach Leonid Slutsky has previewed this weekend’s clash against Burton Albion and he’s hoping to see Hull kick off their home campaign in the Championship with a win.
Having been pleased with the work put in this week on the training pitch, speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media for his pre game press conference, Slutsky explained.
‘It’s another kind of work this week compared to last week because we are preparing to face a different team. It’s a different match with different principles and I hope our work will give us the advantage. Maybe Burton will come and look to play on the counter-attack, I don’t know absolutely but it is one of the things we must prepare for. The focus of our training work and lessons is a little different this week in preparation for Saturday, a game that we are all looking forward to.’
Having opened the campaign with a draw against Aston Villa, this will be the first competitive meeting with Burton Albion following their rise through the pyramid over the last few years and Slutsky went on to say that having used 4231 last time out, formations weren’t really relevant, it was his philosophy that came first and the formation was secondary to that.
‘For me, formations are second and more important is our philosophy and our principles. Philosophy is important because that is the way players understand how they can play – how you can play to your strengths and cover any weaknesses. Formation is second to all of that.’
Adding.
‘Maybe we will change formation, but first it is very important that we have a philosophy and principles, and there are a lot of principles to take on board – principles in position, in attack, in counter-attack, in pressuring opponents, high defensive lines, deep defensive lines – we must understand all of these and more. The use of these does not depend of formation.’
In terms of an injury update, Head of Medicine and Performance Rob Price was also speaking.
‘Kevin (Stewart) picked up an injury to his ankle in training last week and at the moment he is doing some individual work in training. It’s one that we’ll look at closely ahead of the weekend, but we won’t take any risks at this early stage of the season. David (Marshall) is making excellent progress with the freak ankle ligament injury he picked up during training in Portugal four weeks ago. He’s back working with Pat Mountain, the Goalkeeping Coach, and is probably around ten days away from a return to full training.’
He continued.
‘Evandro has a hamstring tendon problem and these can be notoriously slow to heal. We don’t think we’ll see him back in action until after the first international break next month. Will (Keane) is progressing nicely and has been doing a lot of strength work as he continues his recovery from the knee ligament damage he sustained last November. He’ll be seeing his surgeon again next week and might need a minor tidy up around the joint. This is not unusual to ensure the ACL graft is good and strong, and we’re still looking at a return to action around the end of November.’
And finally.
‘Ryan (Mason) will see his consultant next Monday as we await clearance for him to start contact training. He’s done almost a full pre-season, but without contact, and we have to wait for the all-clear for him to take the next step. Moses (Odubajo) will be having a scan later this week and will then see a consultant next week. We will await the outcome of those before looking at where things go from there.’
